Re: Allocating Heap/GC Storage upon Default Construction of RC Containers

[Andrei Alexandrescu via Digitalmars-d-learn]

On 9/21/16 8:49 AM, Nordlöw wrote:
Is there any way to make a default constructor of a struct container
allocate/initialize an internal pointer?
I need this in a container with RC behaviour similar to

struct Container
{
    this()    // this is currently forbidden:
    {
        _rcStore = emplace(cast(RCStore*)malloc(RCStore.size), null, 0);
    }

private:
    static struct RCStore
    {
        T* store;
        size_t refCount;
    }
    RCStore* _rcStore;
}

If I can't modify default construction in containers such as `Container`
it is gonna behave in the same confusing way as empty AA's do for
(novel) D developers. Namely that the assignment of uninitialized AA's
has copy semantics and non-empty AA's have reference semantics.

I believe Andralex has spoken about this being a problem that should be
fixed if possible.

Sadly, not currently. I realize this makes certain designs more 
difficult. -- Andrei